Question:
What legal status does a minor regain if their marriage is annulled in Texas?
Answer:
If a minor’s marriage is annulled in Texas, the law puts the minor back in the shoes of a child. The cloak of adulthood, briefly worn, is taken away. All legal disabilities of minority are reinstated. That means the minor once again lacks the legal capacity of an adult and is subject again to the protections and limitations of youth under the law. This was made clear by the court in Fernandez v. Fernandez, 717 S.W.2d 781 (Tex. App.—El Paso 1986, writ dism’d), where the annulment effectively erased the emancipation that marriage had brought. It is as if the marriage had never been, and the law treats the young person as a minor once more.